


Be You

by panchostokes (badwolfrun)



Series: Nick/Greg Ficlets [40]
Category: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Genre: Comfort, First Meetings, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pre-Series, Protective!Nick Stokes, ish cause they at least know of each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-08
Updated: 2019-12-08
Packaged: 2021-02-25 20:34:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21711532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badwolfrun/pseuds/panchostokes
Summary: from an anon on tumblr: can you imagine someone bullying Greg at the lab, Nick seeing it and stepping in?
Relationships: Greg Sanders/Nick Stokes, Nick Stokes & Greg Sanders
Series: Nick/Greg Ficlets [40]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1257824
Comments: 4
Kudos: 37





	Be You

**Author's Note:**

> pre-series, warning for a homophobic slur used for the sake of plot

It was still Nick’s first month in the lab, and he thought he had a pretty tight handle on who everyone was, though some people were still a bit hard to read, especially the lab technicians, who he had barely gotten to interact with, given that he was working on his field proficiency training, and had limited time in the lab itself. The most he ever got to see of the “lab rats” as Grissom and Brass so affectionately called them, was when he was asked to fetch results or drop off samples. 

Or the occasional interaction in the bathroom.

He had walked in and the other new guy, Greg Sanders, was standing in front of a sink on his tiptoes, his body arched backwards over the rim as a taller, more imposing man sneered in his face. 

“Get off me, man–” Greg was muttering.

“What, are you a fag or something?” the other man growled, knocking something out of Greg’s hand. Nick recognized him from the briefings, he was a recent transfer from days, Dennis Clowry, who, as fate would have it, was another transfer from Texas. “Real men don’t wear shit on their face!”

“Hey! There a problem here?” Nick cut through, holding himself back a little from just barreling into the two men. 

“Get lost, Stokes, this ain’t about you,” Dennis drawled, and he tightened his grip on Greg’s shirt, shook him a little.

“Leave the kid alone, or it _will_ be about me,” Nick dared to threaten, and Dennis clenched his jaw, turned his attention to Nick. He let Greg go, Greg slunk down and scurried to the corner as he walked over to Nick. 

Nick straightened himself up, braced himself for a blow that didn’t land. Instead, the tension climaxed with a rough brush to his shoulder as Dennis stormed out of the bathroom, and as Nick breathed heavily through his nostrils, but softened when he turned back to Greg. 

He bent down and picked up the discarded object, a tube of lip gloss, and handed it to Greg, who took it with a sheepish look on his face. He didn’t even meet Nick’s eyes as he muttered a quick “thank you.”

“Hey. If he _ever_ messes with you like that again, you lemme know, al’righ’?” Nick whispered to him. He put a tentative hand on Greg’s shoulder, feeling like he was back in high school, comforting a bullied teen. Greg did look the part, after all, with a Dreamcast shirt and spiked hair. 

“Dreamcast, huh?” Nick asked, figuring a change in subject would serve some good, as Greg was still avoiding his gaze, hadn’t said a word. “I just bought one myself.”

“Yeah? What do you play?” 

“Mostly NFL, big sports fan. You?”

“Been dabbling in it a bit, yeah. Never really had the build for the real game, you know?” he laughed at himself, which made Nick smile and clap his hand against Greg’s shoulder. 

“You work in DNA, right? Maybe I’ll bring mine to the lab, we can hook it up and play during my break or somethin’.”

“I’d like that,” Greg grinned. Nick gave him a final nod, and began to head out. 

“Hey, do you–you want some?” Greg offered the tube to Nick with an eager smile, which slid off as Nick pulled a face that told him the answer before he said it out loud.

“Nah, not my thing, bro. But…you be you, okay? And don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.” 


End file.
